The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century

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Overview

A military expert reveals how science fiction is fast becoming reality on the battlefield, changing not just how wars are fought, but also the politics, economics, laws, and ethics that surround war itself

P. W. Singer?s previous two books foretold the rise of private military contractors and the advent of child soldiers? predictions that proved all too accurate. Now, he explores the greatest revolution in military affairs since the atom bomb?the advent of robotic warfare.

We are just beginning to see a massive shift in military technology that threatens to make the stuff of I,Robot and the Terminator all too real. More than seven- thousand robotic systems are now in Iraq. Pilots in Nevada are remotely killing terrorists in Afghanistan. Scientists are debating just how smart?and how lethal?to make their current robotic prototypes. And many of the most renowned science fiction authors are secretly consulting for the Pentagon on the next generation.

Blending historic evidence with interviews from the field, Singer vividly shows that as these technologies multiply, they will have profound effects on the front lines as well as on the politics back home. Moving humans off the battlefield makes wars easier to start, but more complex to fight. Replacing men with machines may save some lives, but will lower the morale and psychological barriers to killing. The ?warrior ethos,? which has long defined soldiers? identity, will erode, as will the laws of war that have governed military conflict for generations.

Paradoxically, these new technologies will also bring war to our doorstep. As other nations and even terrorist organizations start to build or buy their own robotic weapons, the robot revolution could undermine America?s military preeminence. While his analysis is unnerving, there?s an irresistible gee-whiz quality to the innovations Singer uncovers. Wired for War travels from Iraq to see these robots in combat to the latter-day ?skunk works? in America?s suburbia, where tomorrow?s technologies of war are quietly being designed. In Singer?s hands, the future of war is as fascinating as it is frightening.

Table of Contents

Wired For WarAuthor’s Note: Why a Book on Robots and War?

Part One: The Change We Are Creating

1. Introduction: Scenes from a Robot War2. Smart Bombs, Norma Jeane, and Defecating Ducks: A Short History of Robotics3. Robotics for Dummies4. To Infinity and Beyond: The Power of Exponential Trends5. Coming Soon to a Battlefield Near You: The Next Wave of Warbots6. Always in the Loop? The Arming and Autonomy of Robots7. Robotic Gods: Our Machine Creators8. What Inspires Them: Science Fiction’s Impact on Science Reality9. The Refuseniks: The Roboticists Who Just Say No

Part Two: What Change Is Creating For Us

10. The Big Cebrowski and the Real RMA: Thinking About Revolutionary Technologies11. “Advanced” Warfare: How We Might Fight with Robots12. Robots That Don’t Like Apple Pi: How the U.S. Could Lose the Unmanned Revolution13. Open-Source Warfare: College Kids, Terrorists, and Other New Users of Robots at War14. Losers and Luddites: The Changing Battlefields Robots Will Fight On and the New Electronic Sparks of War15. The Psychology of Warbots16. YouTube War: The Public and Its Unmanned Wars17. Changing the Experience of War and the Warrior18. Command and Control . . . Alt-Delete: New Technologies and Their Effect on Leadership19. Who Let You in the War? Technology and the New Demographics of Conflict20. Digitizing the Laws of War and Other Issues of (Un)Human Rights21. A Robot Revolt? Talking About Robot Ethics22. Conclusion: The Duality of Robots and Humans